In Texas, government denials of record requests have soared

[TexasTowelie]

DALLAS — When Texans ask state and local officials for public records detailing their operations, more and more the answer is no.

The reason why is in dispute, partly because of the lack of some public records.

Among the materials that are, in theory, publicly available: checks cut by a school board, tapes of 911 emergency calls, text messages between City Council members.

A quirk of the Texas records law, adopted almost 45 years ago, says that when officials deny the public the right to see something, they usually have to run that decision by the state attorney general’s office.

Read more: http://www.tdtnews.com/news/article_43ff74f4-06c8-11e7-b824-3fc19c5d6e91.html